Racial disparities in math and science achievement start as early as kindergarten, according to a new study.
Researchers at Penn State, the University of California Irvine and the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston found that beginning in kindergarten, a greater share of white and Asian students scored above the 90th percentile in math and science assessments than Black or Hispanic students. The achievement gaps continued, and in some cases widened, as the students progressed through elementary school.
Lead author Paul Morgan, a professor of education at Penn State’s College of Education, said the results are troubling because other studies have found that science and math achievement in elementary school can predict later interest and success in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).
“We wanted to try to identify the earliest onset that we could, because there’s reason to believe that the earlier we intervene, the better,” he said.
Of the 10,900 students whose achievement was tracked by the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study with the U.S. Department of Education, between 13% and 16% of white children scored above the 90th percentile in kindergarten, compared with 3% to 4% of Black or Hispanic children.
Education Week,Jan. 19